Dortmund 2: From hero to zero

Vladimir Fedoseev didn’t get long to savour beating former
World Champion Vladimir Kramnik as in Round 2 of the Sparkassen Dortmund Chess
Meeting he went wrong in the opening and got blown away by local star Matthias
Bluebaum. Matthias now leads alongside Radek Wojtaszek, who piled the pressure
on Wang Yue until the Chinese player finally cracked. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was
content to take a quick draw against Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, while Kramnik failed
to punish a dubious-looking novelty on move 5 from Dmitry Andreikin.

Chess is tough! One day you're beating a former World Champion, the next you're losing to an up-and-coming 20-year-old | photo: Georgios Souleidis, official website

We got three tough battles and one game to forget in Round 3
of this year’s Dortmund supertournament (click on a result to replay the game
with computer analysis):

If you missed the live show with Grandmaster Jan Gustafsson
you can rewatch it below – given the early rest day after Round 2 in Dortmund
there’s plenty of time!

On this occasion let’s begin our roundup of the day’s action
with the draws:

The favourites draw

Only a very brave man would have put money on Matthias Bluebaum
and Radek Wojtaszek leading in Dortmund after two rounds given the field also
included Top 10 stars Vladimir Kramnik and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Neither of
them has started in top form, though, with Kramnik of course going down in
flames in Round 1 while MVL held on by the skin of his teeth against Wojtaszek.

In Round 2 Maxime was content to take the easiest of draws
with the black pieces after surprising Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu in the opening –
1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nf6 (not his usual 2..Nc6) 3.Nc3 d5 (again, 3…Nc6 was the
expected move while Maxime had never played this before). Nisipeanu admitted he
hadn’t looked at it before the game and went on to play for a draw, which was
achieved without any adventures by move 27. He said afterwards, “naturally, it’s
embarrassing to play like that with White”. MVL, meanwhile, had an extra reason
to be happy with the quick draw – it meant the tennis and in particular Federer
fan could watch the legend claim his 8th Wimbledon title!

The other draw was a very different story, with Dmitry
Andreikin pulling off the not inconsiderable task of playing a novelty on move
5, against Vladimir Kramnik! It’s not clear if 5.f4!? will get many followers:

Andreikin said afterwards:

This is modern chess. You have to take risks if you want to
play for a win.

Kramnik was unable to improve on his 1:3 classical score against Andreikin | photo: Georgios Souleidis, official website

Kramnik immediately began to think, but not too much, and
with straightforward moves it soon seemed as if he was one mistake from his
opponent away from a winning position:

Andreikin is nothing if not resilient, though, and held
things together until it seems Kramnik made the mistake of releasing the
tension too soon:

Here Black could have could have upped the pressure with a
move like 13…Ba6, but after thinking for 18 minutes Vladimir instead decided to
simplify with 13…dxe4!? 14.Nxe4 Nxe4 15.Bxe4 Nf6. That neutralised White’s
potential kingside attack with g4-g5 but also left Black with little to work with,
and eventually it was White if anyone who was better in a rook + knight vs.
rook + bishop ending. Kramnik had carefully assessed that the knight could do
no damage, though, and immediately stopped the bleeding after his calamitous
first round.

Wojtaszek 1-0 Wang Yue: A hole in the Great Wall of China

Once upon a time Wang Yue acquired the nickname "sleepy panda" - will he wake up now he's fallen behind in the tournament? | photo: Georgios Souleidis, official website

Radek Wojtaszek had a similar comment to Andreikin after this
game:

I had to risk something today if I want to achieve something
in this tournament.

When Wang Yue played a novelty on move 9 in a position
previously reached by some big players (Carlsen-Nakamura, Kasparov-Karpov)
Wojtaszek accepted the challenge of pushing his queenside pawns, until the
first critical moment arose after 11…a5:

Here it turns out the counter-intuitive 12.Bxf6! is strong,
since after 12…Bxf6 the pressure on c5 has gone and White can play 13.b5, while
12…gxf6 13.Qd2! threatens to win on the spot e.g. 13…axb4 14.Qxh6 bxc3? and both
15.Bd3! and 15.Rxc3! lead to crushing wins for White.

Instead after 10 minutes Wojtaszek went for 12.Na4 axb4
13.Nxb6 and might have been in some danger against more accurate play from his
opponent. Instead White simply got a comfortable position and when queens were
exchanged it looked as though the game would trundle towards an uneventful
draw.

Dortmund has always been played on a big stage with a big live audience | photo: Georgios Souleidis, official website

Appearances were deceptive, though, and the white rooks and
bishop went on to weave a mating net that left Black on the verge of disaster,
so that the losing move, 31…Bg4?, is hard to classify as a blunder – Wojtaszek
thought he was simply winning by this stage:

Instead it turns out active defence could still have saved
Wang Yue: 31…Rxh2! 32.Rb8 f6! and while after 31…Bg4? moves like 33.Rg8 and
33.e6 would have been crushing for White, in this case they can easily be
parried. As Radek explained, though, it was “really tough to see”.

Wojtaszek has started with two excellent games | photo: Georgios Souleidis, official website

For Wojtaszek the win in such a short event means he can
begin to dream of winning his first supertournament. The closest he’s come so
far was Biel in 2015, when he
beat MVL in Round 7 to lead with three rounds to go, but finished half a
point behind Maxime after drawing his remaining games.

The day’s other win, meanwhile, was astonishingly easy:

Bluebaum 1-0 Fedoseev: Back down to earth

Just when it seemed Vladimir Fedoseev could do no wrong…
this! The moment at which things began to slip seems to have been after 11.Bb3:

Here Adhiban had recently played 11…Bc7 against Duda in the
World Team Championship, and although that
didn’t exactly work out it looks a better bet than 11…Nb6!?, removing a piece covering e5 and giving White almost everything he could dream of
after 12.dxe5 Bxe5 13.Nxe5 Qxe5 14.e4. White had a potential pawn steamroller on the
kingside backed up by the bishop pair, and it was just a question of whether
Fedoseev could find any way to survive the trouble ahead.

Matthias Bluebaum impressed at times in the GRENKE Chess Classic but he didn't win a game - he's already improved on that in Dortmund | photo: Georgios Souleidis, official website

The answer soon became a clear “no”, with 19…Qg5 inviting
the pawn wave:

20.f4! exploited the simple fact that 20…Qxf4 is met by
21.Rf3! and the capture on f7 will end the game. Events developed fast with 20…Qe7
21.Qf2 Nb6 22.f5 a5 23.e5 a4 24.f6! Qb4:

Fedoseev is a very inventive tactical player, but some
positions can’t be saved, and Bluebaum’s main issue here was simply choosing
between all the appealing options. He has a beautiful win with 25.Bxf7+!
Kxf7 26.fxg7+ Kg8 27.Rf1! (threatening mate on f7) 27…Be6 and the simple
28.Rg3!, when there’s no decent defence against the threat of Qf8+ and gxf8 mate
next move.

You could easily overlook a saving blow in such variations,
though, and Bluebaum found an equally elegant solution: 25.a3!, when after 25…Qxb3
26.Qg3 there’s no defence against the threat of gradually manoeuvring the queen
to give mate on g7. Fedoseev acknowledged that with 25…Qf8 but after 26.fxg7
Qe7 27.Ne4 he found himself in the same position as Kramnik the day before –
reluctant to resign, but knowing the game was well and truly up. He struggled on
to move 31.

That left Fedoseev back on 50%, with Bluebaum and Wojtaszek
taking the early lead. Kramnik keeps Wang Yue company at the bottom of the
table:

The players now get an early rest day – in fact they get
another one after another two rounds before a gruelling final three games next
weekend! – but Round 3 promises to be fun. Kramnik and MVL both have the white
pieces against the leaders and will no doubt be out to restore some order to
the tournament:

Joining Jan Gustafsson in the commentary booth
in Hamburg on Tuesday will be Lawrence Trent, while Peter Svidler will be their “phone-a-friend”
of choice for some expert analysis. The video will be exclusively for chess24
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Who could resist?

Tune in for Round 3 from around 15:15 on Tuesday here on chess24! You can also follow the games in our free mobile apps: